This was in today's Crain's Chicago Business. I'm hoping it works to link to the video:

{{youtube:WI76pgTrGm4}}

You might have to login to read the article, but here's a link. If you can't see the article online, here are some points I found interesting:

- A couple wished to built an environmentally friendly home on a budget, and had a modular home built out of state and shipped to Oak Park, IL (which as a side note has a large number of FLW homes)

- The cost savings of going modularwere marginal, in part due to the need to ship the pieces 125 miles

- Building tight and energy-efficient was easier to control in a factory setting than on a home site

- One challenge is on inspections, and I found this interesting (Sommers, quoted below, is from a firm that has done 2 modular homes in Chicago but is not the firm that did the home featured in the article):

"One key obstacle, Sommers said, is that municipalities want to inspect all construction along the way, which, while justifiable for health and safety reasons, makes building a house 125 miles from the village inspector's office a sore spot. He switched to designing for prefabrication of panels, or individual walls, instead of enclosed boxes, so that all inspections can be done on the home's site."

- For the home in the article, 3rd party inspectors did the inspections while the modules were being built, and the village's inspectors took over once the home was assembled on the lot.

Modular Building

COMPANY

EXPLORE HOUZZ

CONNECT WITH US